Resuscitating my car

While I was recovering from my back injury, I could not drive. Therefore, I got a lot of rides from numerous co-workers and friends (thank you to them), and my car was in the garage idle. My car, a 2002 white RSX named Gohan, was not driven for 5 weeks.

After I was given the ok from my doctor to drive, I decided it was time to revive my car. I got into it, and turned the key. It turned, and nothing happened. I tried again, slamming the clutch as hard as I could into the floor of the car. Nothing. So then I decided that the battery was dead. Apparently it is not a good thing to leave your car idle for 5 weeks. So I decided to call AAA. They said the jumper dude would be there in an hour.

I decided that it would be much easier for the AAA guy to jump my car if it were out of the garage. So I decided to push the car out of the garage just enough to at least get the hood of the car outside. With back brace and all, I put all my weight into the car, and it didn't budge. Hmm...it's not supposed to be like this. I got into the drivers seat, and with the strength of one leg, tried to ease the car out of the garage. Still nothing. Ok, fine. So I decided to get back to the front of the car and give it one more shot. I heaved again, and it moved, about 2 inches. Great. So I gave it one more heave. It moved again 2 inches. I tried getting into the drivers seat and pushing again with my foot. Nope, nothing. So I decided to give it one more heave. It moved!!!

Unfortunately, it moved very quickly. It rolled down the driveway. It was going to roll into the street!!!!!

But no...


My drivers side door got jammed into the space between the garage door and the garage wall. Phew...

I got around to the back side of my car and tried to push it forward back into the garage. With all my crippled strength, I pushed as hard as I could to try to roll the car back into the garage. Nothing. Crap...

So I sat there for the next 30 minutes waiting for the AAA to rescue me from the dead battery and the car wedged into the garage. The AAA guy came, and he pushed my car back into the garage (quite easily, in fact). My the paint on the side of my door was a little scratched, but otherwise, it looked ok for having been jammed between the garage door and the building. He kindly jump started my car, and told me that if I ran it for 20 minutes, it would be fine. So I decided to drive it to work, and thanked the AAA guy. I was back in my car! Woo hoo!!!

Or so I thought...

On my way to work I realized that there was a lot of road noise. I thought a window was open somewhere, but I soon discovered that the garage door had bent the corner of my drivers side door back enough so that it would create drag and let in a lot of road noise. Sigh...

So I took it to the body shop, and they told me that not only was door corner bent back, but the entire door was bent the other way. I couldn't tell the difference, so I told them to just fix the corner. That turned out to be about $50. I got a new battery installed for about $60. All in all, my back injury and my stupidity cost me $110. So the lesson learned is don't break your back, and don't try to push your car out of the garage with a broken back =)